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Wellcare Health Shares Surged: What You Need to Know

Is this meaningful or just another movement?

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Wellcare Health(NYSE: WCG) jumped by as much as 13% today after the company reported upbeat quarterly earnings and raised its outlook.

So what: Third-quarter revenue came in at $1.5 billion, representing an 11% increase from last year, which resulted in earnings per share of $2.15. Sales were on target with estimates, but the profit decimated the $1.30 that the market was expecting.

Now what: The good news doesn't stop there, since the company significantly bumped its full-year outlook from a range of $4.60 to $4.80 in profit to a new ballpark of $5.55 to $5.65, much loftier than the $4.81 consensus. Membership rose by 10% to from roughly 2.2 million members last year to 2.4 million members. Also during the quarter, Wellcare completed an upgrade of its core operating system, which promises to further improve service, productivity, and compliance.

Author

Evan is a Senior Technology Specialist at The Motley Fool. He was previously a Senior Trading Specialist at Charles Schwab, and worked briefly at Tesla. Evan graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, and is a CFA charterholder.